With a few days to go before rego, I towed the car up to a friends workshop where countless hours ticked by, while little jobs were completed, door tops fitted, wiring completed, suspension components torqued, leaks fixed, floor secured, canvas applied steering adjusted, fixings fixed and brakes ….. none. I had read AULRO posts on how difficult they were to bleed, but this was ridiculous. I was convinced it was air in the mater cylinder so we got the car on an extreme angle to try and move any potential bubbles that were hiding. I tried pressure bleeding, still no success.
Finally the time had come for the registration check and I had no brakes!!!!! The car was running beautifully as this stage but not stopping at all. Anyhow I took the car to the mechanic performing the registration and explained the situation and said I would pay for labour if they could bleed the brakes for me. At the end of the day I got a very disappointing phone call saying they were unable to bleed the brakes and I was to pickup the car the next morning. I was feeling pretty deflated. The 65th cruise was Sunday morning at it was currently Friday when I went to retrieve my car. I chatted to the mechanic and he sensed my frustration. He then explained if I can get the brakes to work and bring the car back within 2 hours he would pass it for rego. I couldn’t believe it a 2nd chance to make the anniversary run…. Although cutting it pretty fine!!! I got the car back to my friend’s workshop and trawled the AULRO posts looking for ideas I hadn’t yet tried. I isolated the problem to the front dual wheel cylinders and after removing the drum and applying ratchet straps around the shoes pushing the pistons back as far as it would go, in conjunction with pressure bleeding at 15 PSI I finally had a pedal WOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. I got the car round to the mechanic quick smart where he agreed to sign off the vehicle. It was now midday Friday and the paperwork was underway.
One more stage remained involving a 30km drive to the licensing centre where I knew I would be in for a queue at least an hour and a half long, also I was pretty sure they shut early on a Friday??????? Panic began to set in once more. As I waited for the paperwork to be approved (2 hours) and as the mechanic abused his staff for not being able to fix my brakes in 3 hours whilst I did it in an hour or so. Why is this taking so long I asked? Typically same old story “because its an old car”. In fairness the car had not been registered in over 30 years so I should have expected this part was going to take some time. Finally this was done!!! All that was left was a lengthy queue in the licensing centre and I was home free. Now I was starting to get very excited!!! At 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon it was finally registered. I don’t think I could cut it any finer!!! That’s it I can now make the 65th anniversary cruise.
